Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/28/10
Penn senior midfielder Ali DeLuca was named unanimous Player of the Year in a vote held by the league’s coaches.
DeLuca completed the career double with her selection as Player of the Year this season, adding the distinction to Rookie of the Year honors she picked up in 2007. She is the seventh player in Ivy history to win both awards in her career and the first Penn player to do so.
Earlier this season against Columbia, DeLuca established a new record for goals in a career by a Penn player when she scored her 130th goal. At the end of the regular season, she has raised the bar to 136 career goals. In addition, DeLuca has 56 career assists to rank her fourth all-time by a Quaker. Her career total of 192 points is second all-time at Penn.
In 2010, DeLuca has tied her career high in points with 55. That mark is tied for third all-time in a single season at Penn. She has 36 goals (tied for sixth-most in a season) and 19 assists (a career high and seventh-most in a season). Over the course of the season, she was the only player in the Ivy League to be named both Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week. In her last two games, with the Quakers needing two wins to lock up a fourth-straight outright Ivy title, she scored 15 points – including a career-high nine against Brown on Sunday. Six of those points against the Bears were assists, tying the school record for helpers in a game.
Along with her selection as unanimous Player of the Year, DeLuca was named unanimous first-team All-Ivy. This is DeLuca’s fourth appearance on an All-Ivy team, and her third time as a first-teamer.
She was joined on the first-team All-Ivy list by Emma Spiro, Erin Brennan and Kaileigh Wright. Like DeLuca, Spiro was a unanimous selection – her second consecutive unanimous appearance (Spiro was Ivy Co-Player of the Year in 2009). For Brennan, the 2009 Ivy Rookie of the Year, this is her first time being selected as first-team All-Ivy, following second-team distinction in ’09. Wright was named first-team All-Ivy for the first time in her career after receiving honorable mention honors in 2009.
Midfielder Giulia Giordano was named second-team All-Ivy, her first-ever selection to the All-Ivy team. Another first-timer on the end of the season All-Ivy teams is senior defender Barb Seaman who was also named second-team All-Ivy.
Also on the second team was Yale senior defender Michele Fiorentino. This was the first career All-Ivy League selection for Fiorentino, who was a mainstay of the Yale defense for four years and produced some of the best numbers of her career this year. In Ivy League games, her 10 caused turnovers and 13 ground balls both lead the team. She also led the team in caused turnovers overall (20) and was in second in ground balls (25). That included a three-caused turnover, three-ground ball game in Yale’s 17-13 win over Harvard. She repeated those numbers in Yale’s win over Columbia as well. Throughout her career Fiorentino was one of the team’s most reliable players, with 57 career starts, and she missed just three games. She routinely marked one of the opposing team’s top scorers.
Fiorentino is a biology major in Timothy Dwight College. Prior to Yale she attended Conestoga High.
Rounding out Penn’s seven selections to the All-Ivy team is senior Courtney Lubbe (Council Rock North), who was named honorable mention All-Ivy. This is her second All-Ivy selection, coupling with a first-team appearance in 2009.
Five of Penn’s seven honorees are members of the Class of 2010 which won four Ivy titles. Last weekend, with a 19-5 win over Brown, the senior class ended its regular season Ivy careers with a perfect 28-0 record. Along the way, this class has reached three NCAA Final Fours and one NCAA Championship game.
Penn is preparing for the inaugural Ivy League Women’s Lacrosse Tournament which the Quakers are hosting this weekend at Franklin Field. Penn is the top seed and will play fourth-seeded Princeton in the semifinals at 7 p.m. No. 2 seed Dartmouth will play third-seeded Cornell in the opener at 4 p.m. The winners will meet on May 2 at 12:30 p.m. to determine who will receive the Ivy League’s automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Championships.
2010 Women’s Lacrosse Player Awards
*Unanimous selection
Player of the Year:
*Ali DeLuca, Penn (Sr., Hillsborough, N.J.)
Rookie of the Year:
*Jennifer VanderMeulen, Harvard (Fr., Liverpool, N.Y.)
First Team (13)
*Attack – Jessi Steinberg, Cornell (So., Suffern, N.Y.)
*Attack – Greta Meyer, Dartmouth (Jr., Denver, Colo.)
*Attack – Jennifer VanderMeulen, Harvard (Fr., Liverpool, N.Y.)
Attack – Erin Brennan, Penn (So., Garden City, N.J.)
Attack – Lizzy Drumm, Princeton (Jr., Westbury, N.Y)
*Midfield – Ali DeLuca, Penn (Sr., Hillsborough, N.J.)
*Midfield – Emma Spiro, Penn (Sr., Wellesley, Mass.)
Midfield – Paris Waterman, Brown (Jr., Newark, Del.)
*Defense – Lindsey deButts, Princeton (So., Alexandria, Va.)
Defense – Shannie MacKenzie, Dartmouth (Jr., Riverside, Conn.)
Defense – Tissy O’Connor, Cornell (Sr., Winchester, Mass.)
Defense – Kaileigh Wright, Penn (Sr., Mendham, N.J.)
Goalkeeper – Julie Wadland, Dartmouth (Sr., Andover, Mass.)
Second Team (11)
Attack – Libby Johnson, Cornell (Jr., Skaneateles, N.Y.)
Attack – Kaela McGilloway, Brown (So., Sea Cliff, N.Y.)
Attack – Brittany Shannon, Columbia (Jr. Garden City, N.Y.)
Midfield – Melanie Baskind, Harvard (So., Framingham, Mass.)
Midfield – Giulia Giordano, Penn (Jr., Moorestown, N.J.)
Midfield – Sarah Plumb, Dartmouth (So., Wellesley, Mass.)
Midfield – Devon Rhodes, Yale (Fr., East Northport, N.Y.)
Defense – Michele Fiorentino, Yale (Sr., Berwyn, Pa.)
Defense – Colleen Olsen, Dartmouth (Sr., Avon, Conn.)
Defense – Barb Seaman, Penn (Sr., Baltimore, Md.)
Goalkeeper – Erin Tochihara, Princeton (Jr., Englewood, Colo.)
Honorable Mention (9)
Micaela Cyr, Harvard (Fr., M, Lexington, Mass.)
Taylor Gattinella, Columbia (So., M, Greenwich, Conn.)
Kirsten Goldberg, Dartmouth (So., M, Cockeysville, Md.)
Amanda Goodheart, Columbia (So., D, Alexandria, Va.)
Caroline Helmer, Cornell (So., M, Manlius, N.Y.)
Courtney Lubbe, Penn (Sr., A, Newtown, Pa.)
Kristin Morrison, Princeton (Sr., A, Manhasset, N.Y.)
Sarah Parks, Dartmouth (So., A, Ellicott City, Md.)
Whitney Quackenbush, Yale (So., G, Manhasset, N.Y.)
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